Africa’s leaders are setting the clock on achieving higher economic growth for the continent. One big reason: By 2050, about 1 in 4 people on Earth will be African.
A good example of this resolve was the May 29 election of a new head of the African Development Bank, a premier finance entity for driving job creation. The winner was Sidi Ould Tah of Mauritania. He most recently led the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, where he quadrupled the bank’s assets and secured a triple-A rating.
A common thread in the competitive election for a new bank president was the need to shift Africa from a dependence on foreign donors to economic self-reliance and a shared vision for investments. That goal is urgent after the slashing of American foreign aid by President Donald Trump as well as a decline in European assistance.
“As Africans we are not completely sad about [these] developments,” Tanzania’s former foreign minister told The Economist. “This is what we have always been saying we want, to rely less on others.”
Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was more blunt: “Why are you crying?” he asked during initial shock over the aid cuts. “[Instead] say, ‘OK, what are we going to do to help ourselves?’”
One popular answer is to tap private capital in Africa. An estimated $4 trillion is held in African banks, pension funds, and foreign reserves. “The issue is,” a Lagos, Nigeria-based lender told the news site Semafor, “how we get [that money] to flow into projects.” Key targets include power supply, natural resources, and agriculture.
The first challenge for Mr. Tah is to align the bank’s 54 member nations toward common goals. One model of cooperation for him is the Economic Commission of West African States, which marked its 50th anniversary this year. Despite linguistic, cultural, and political differences among its more than a dozen members, it has been effective. The countries allow free movement and free trade for citizens and businesses and agree on common tariffs and policies toward nonmember states.
The African Development Bank now has a chance to become “a true engine of continental unity,” wrote Kenya-based economist Hannah Ryder in Semafor. It can also break from an overdependence on foreign aid that has prevented a firm footing for democracy – the kind in which citizens hold elected leaders accountable for economic growth, not for how much aid is amassed.
